Crown King, Arizona

We joined Susan and Wally in walking their dogs around the RV park first thing this morning.  It's looking like it will be a beautiful day.  We noticed six hot air balloons passing silently by.

4 of the 6 balloons we saw this morning.

Somebody at the RV park had been creative and made up a mock graveyard.  We enjoyed reading the funny markers.

Graveyard

Oops!

After the walk Wally drove us to Crown King, an old gold mining town in the mountains.  It was only 50 miles, but took nearly three hours to get there through beautiful, but narrow windy rough mountain roads.  We would never have gone if he did not have a Jeep to get us there.  THANK YOU WALLY for your driving skills.

Spectacular Views 

Narrow Mountain Roads  

We liked this sign by a small town on the way up to Crown King.

The elevation is nearly 6,000 feet, there is snow up here.

When we finally arrived at Crown King, we saw lots of 4-wheelers and 4 wheel drive pickup trucks, but no cars.  I think it would be foolish to try to drive a car up here.  We did see more 4-wheelers out riding around in the desert mountain area.  It's a popular thing to do in Arizona.

It was kinda cool up there and we could see that they had had snow, it was piled up around the buildings and in the shady areas.  The dirt streets were muddy from the snow melt.

4-wheelers at the saloon

There are a few shops and food places here, and some lodging.  We had lunch at the Crown King Saloon, Arizona's oldest Saloon and Brothel.  ok, well, it's not a brothel any more, and the food was very good.

Crown King Saloon

Back down the mountain.  It was a long rough ride, but we enjoyed it anyway.  It is such beautiful country.
Wally dropped Susan and I off at the grocery store to get supplies for dinner while he and Bernie went to wash the Jeep, it got a little dirty today.

While we were waiting for the guys to come pick us up we saw more hot air balloons rising from the field next to the shopping center.

Hot Air Balloons Again